By: Ina Steiner

eBay is drumming up new users with an unusual referral promotion. "Share your love: Get $10 when friends shop eBay. They'll receive $10, too!" The email invitation goes on to state:

"You shop on eBay all the time, but what about your friends and family who don't? For a limited time, refer your friends to eBay and we'll give you both $10 once they've made their first purchase."

The referral promotion is by invitation only and is for a limited time (unspecified). Participants can earn a $10 eBay voucher for each person they refer who registers for an eBay account and makes their first purchase on eBay.

In addition, some participants can earn a $10 eBay voucher when they refer existing users who haven't made a purchase on eBay in the last 12 months, if those users make a purchase on eBay.

Invited participants can earn up to a maximum of $100 referring friends to eBay.

Since eBay is giving both the referrer and those referred each $10 when a sale is made through the program, it means eBay is paying $20 a pop to drum up new buyers.

Desperate for buyers, eBay is.

Now that sitewide flash sale fatigue has set in (we should be due for another one sometime soon) fish-gape Wenig is resorting to more gimmicks.

I'm betting there are going to be all kinds of glitches with this.

Any takers?

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: ebayout

Tue May 15 18:00:45 2018

ebay will never fathom that a FREE can of Good Will goes a lot farther than a $20 Can of Desperation.Only 6 weeks left in the quarter...the Lunacy Level is just starting.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: Mark4

Tue May 15 18:01:40 2018

My god ebay is a desperate and sinking ship. Bonanza.com folks, the new ebay.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: Silver Ice King

Tue May 15 18:48:47 2018

Extremely high customer acquisition cost for a new company, let alone an established company that has been around as long as Ebay. That is such a sign of desperation that if Wall Street does not sit up and take notice its because some of them are on Wenig or Ebays bank accounts.

Its only May and Wenig is already pulling all the stops out to try and salvage the 2nd Qtr results. I guess Etsy announcing the results it did and Amazon destroying Ebay has shown them that they are really losing all their customers to the competition and he realizes that his job is really on the line !!!

Maybe all those posts about April absolutely being horrible on Ebay (I wonder if it has to do with the new Platform Ebay is now using) are more reality than even Ebay cares to announce. This would be about the time they would be seeing the final internal April results.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: Marie

Tue May 15 18:49:07 2018

When Ebay does something to promote getting more buyers to the site, Some will say all kinds of negative things about Ebay.

If Ebay doesn't do anything to attract new buyers, then we complain about that as well.

So which do you prefer? Do something or do nothing?

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: eXtinctBay

Tue May 15 18:50:26 2018

Novel Idea, eBay!

Use $20 that you steal from your sellers to attract more buyers.

Or is this money from the Flipkart sale??

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: DingDong

Tue May 15 19:19:35 2018

Mark4 Thanks for the joke.Bonanza is pay to play and you sure don't advertise it unless the sellers are paying. What all the comments why no sales, why don't they get a response from customer service, why their charge card is charged when they wanted a free booth and so on.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: Silver Ice King

Tue May 15 20:03:23 2018

@Marie

I am all for Ebay trying to find ways to bring in new buyers, but I am also going to comment on how much they are having to spend to get them after allowing all of the big box stores to steal their customers from them with millions of free listings, discounted FVF's and then turning a blind eye when they sent discount coupons out to these same customers to use on their web site instead of going back to Ebay for their purchases.

I personally brought it to their attention a number of times and was told that is how the vertical markets work now. But of course that is supposed to be working both ways, but nobody was returning anything Ebays way, so they just continued to give away their customers and these big stores laughed all the way to the bank. I am sure that is one of the many reasons that Target just dumped EBay, as they found there were not enough quality customers left to bother spending any money on.

So yes, i am all for Ebay trying to find a way to bring in new customers, but after giving away the farm and all the customers all these years, now we, the sellers are going to wind up paying for their poor management all these years, as we all know that Ebay is not going to eat the final cost for all of these new customers. Somewhere along the line, Ebay is either going to try and justify increasing the FVF to cover the cost of all the new buyers that they will claim have been added or some other fee will be added to have access to these new customers. Somehow Ebay will find a way to monetize this cost which never should have been incurred in the first place.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: Ric

Tue May 15 20:55:08 2018

Meg Whitman: "A monkey could drive this bus....."

Devin Wenig - The latest monkey proving he can't drive the bus but at least he can hand out coupons.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: iheartjacksparrow

Tue May 15 21:02:48 2018

@Marie - eBay needs to do some serious advertising if they want to reclaim their lost buyers. I was watching an X-Files marathon on BBC America, and it seemed like at every other commercial break there was an ad for Top Hatter ("Just like eBay, only every auction lasts for just 90 seconds.") If a site that I'm guessing most people have never heard of (I only know the name because a person commented on an article about TH on this blog) can advertise on a cable network, why can't eBay?

If eBay would take all that money they think they are going to pay out for referrals, and saturated a few smaller cable networks with some decent ads, they might get an influx of buyers. Or it could be that bad word of mouth mixed in with all the other problems we discuss on a daily basis has ruined any chance of them bringing in new buyers on a consistent basis.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: mcposty

Tue May 15 21:38:48 2018

Ebay has no clue how to market and get buyers coming back or how to keep sellers.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: pace306

Tue May 15 22:48:09 2018

When Ebay does something to promote getting more buyers to the site, Some will say all kinds of negative things about Ebay.

If Ebay doesn't do anything to attract new buyers, then we complain about that as well.

So which do you prefer? Do something or do nothing?

How about eBay just being HONEST and FORTHRIGHT - or is that too much to ask for?

No one needs their $10 handouts. What we need is NO throttling, less interference in our business, the removal of ALL "sticks" - you know - stuff like that.

Stop pinning it on us - you make it sound like its the SELLERS fault - you know better then that.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: comments

Tue May 15 23:47:08 2018

Lighten up everyone lol. Virtually every company has some sort of referral program.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: ebayout

Wed May 16 00:21:20 2018

@commentsNot every company runs off its "customers", is coming off a relatively poor 1st quarter and is looking at a worser 2nd quarter, has their stock floundering, and HAS to buy sales at a LOSS.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: Shane

Wed May 16 04:47:45 2018

I've never seen eBay run a promotion like this before. Hope I'm wrong, but it seems to smack of desperation.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: Rexford

Wed May 16 06:48:31 2018

"You shop on eBay all the time, but what about your friends and family who don't?"

Word of mouth is a powerful thing. Do they realize how many sellers have told friends and family NOT to shop on eBay?

The lashes that eBay have doled out to sellers (and continue to do so) over the years have stung. There are some on this blog who simply refuse to see the elephant in the room, always defending eBay. To them I say for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You can't tell the wife who is beaten by the husband that the husband has their best interests at heart.

The monkeys have driven the bus off of the cliff.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: maxmad

Wed May 16 07:08:46 2018

it's really not worth ruining a friendship over $10

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: pace306

Wed May 16 09:49:23 2018

Friends dont let friends buy on eBay

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: RL15

Wed May 16 11:36:46 2018

when I was selling on fleecebay I would never ever mention that site to anyone. if asked where I sell I would answer truthfully, but omit fleecebay.

there is no way in hell I would ever tell someone to use fleecebay.

the ceo can keep the coupon and buy something from bobby cupcakes or the grifter.

eBay Pays Big Bucks for New Buyers through Referrals

by: Marie

Wed May 16 12:47:10 2018

Humm, I let friends and family purchase off Ebay. If what they are looking for is on Ebay and the seller appears to be in good standing, sure.

Yes, "word of mouth" is a powerful thing. And here again, there are current sellers on Ebay posting on a public forum smack talking Ebay and saying it is not a good place to shop. That tells me that this is PART of the problem.

I understand that there are problems on Ebay. My eyes are open. But I don't discourage people from coming to Ebay and buying things from me. I'm on Ebay to sell stuff and earn a living. Why in the world would I sabotage my own sales? Makes absolutely no sense to me.

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